New Jewelry Dishes

I came across some ceramic jewelry dishes on Pinterest a little while ago which inspired me to create these new pieces.  I loved the idea of having holes around the edge for hanging earrings.  There were a few challenges in creating these but I was determined to figure it out.

We've had several people ask us how we got the lace doilies to stick.  There are no doilies attached to these but only the impression made from them and then antiqued in paint.  I am happy to say that no doilies were harmed in the process and we can use them over and over again!

These dishes took quite a few hours to make plus several bakings.  The most difficult part is joining the 2 sections and finding the right forms so they maintain their shape each time they are baked.  These dishes are about 8 inches in diameter.  You can hang 21 pairs of earrings on the charcoal dish and 24 pair on the purple one. 

These pieces are now available at the Shuswap Artisan Market in Sorrento.

Our First Day at the Shuswap Artisan Market

The grand opening of the Shuswap Artisan Market in Sorrento was last weekend.  Dave and I had our first shift at the store on Sunday and was a very enjoyable day.

Rebecca of Uberustic Natural Skin Care was there as well that day and set up her soap making demo and fun selfie photo booth outside.

And this is a display of her handmade natural skin care products that are for sale in the store.

We had a demo set-up that day as well to show how we make a cane and sculpt our signature lady bugs like the ones on these dishes which are now available in the new store.  

We also added a selection of our flip flop necklaces and earrings which are quite popular during the summer season.

With 21 local artists in the shop, there is a wide variety of handcrafted items and fresh new items arriving on a regular basis.  We will be sharing a little bit about the other artists over time but in the meantime, here is a sneak peek of a few of the various items that are for sale there.

Multi-colored Retro Pattern Dish

When I was making snaps from the retro pattern canes a while ago I suddenly felt inspired to make a dish.  Even though I really enjoy making beads, buttons or interchangeable snaps, it is a satisfying feeling to create something much larger.

With smaller items such as a bead or snap, the pattern can be quite tiny or only a portion of the design is used.   With an item like this dish, the "canvas" is much larger allowing the polymer patterns to show more.  In this dish I combined slices from different canes to create a rainbow or color shifting effect.

This dish, along with some others are now available in our online store.

Rectangle Kaleidoscope Dish

Yesterday was the final day of the Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts show and it will most likely take a few days for Dave and I to get everything put away and recover from the busy week we've had.  It was a great week and we are already planning the next art show we will be in coming up in September but I will share that with you a little later when I have more time.

In the meantime, since I was showing off some of my new decorative ring/jewelry/soap dishes, I thought I would show you one more in a different style, again with more of my left over kaleidoscope cane pieces. This time I used Helen Breil's "Tango" texture sheet to "frame" it.

Hexagon Kaleidoscope Dish

I've been really into making decorative dishes lately.   Here is one in a Hexagon shape using some left over kaleidoscope cane.  I used the Pixie Art Stamp called Magic Mushroom by Mike Breil as well but left it in the jet black color which makes the colors in the center pop.

I used some of the left over scraps of the kaleidoscope cane to create the feet using the Natasha technique.

Kaleidoscope Dish

When playing with my clay I really enjoy making beads and buttons the most.  I do like a challenge of creating larger pieces which helps to break up the boredom.  While experimenting and developing my skill in creating kaleidoscope canes, I had put a large design together that I absolutely loved but was way too large to use for any pendant or button.  I set it aside along with the remainder part of the cane until I could decide what I was going to do with it.

After looking at it for several days, I could only visualize it as a centerpiece for a dish and this is the finished piece.

The most difficult part of finishing this piece was getting it absolutely smooth before baking which resulted in a fair bit of sanding later.

Fortunately I had some left over cane so still created some jewelry pieces.  All these pieces shown below were created from the same cane.  I love how you can get so many different patterns and effects from it.